


Lost Ways

by orphan_account



Category: Firefly, Star Trek (2009)
Genre: Character of Color, Community: femslash_today, Crossover, Femslash, Ficlet, Multi, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-07-18
Updated: 2009-07-18
Packaged: 2017-10-03 14:02:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zoe is lost.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lost Ways

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Femslash-Today's 'Summer Lightning' Porn Battle (but is not actually porny).  
> References the other pairings mentioned.

The woman's – Zoe's – speech is littered with snatches of Chinese, which makes her less than popular with their shipmates, most of whom have never studied the language. She seems put at ease, poor thing, when Uhura speaks to her in the same language, learning and adapting to the strange accent she uses. It must remind her of home.

Zoe's a refugee of another timeline, just like they all are now, Uhura supposes, since the Romulan Nero murdered millions and changed the future. It's just that Zoe's break was made a long, long time ago. The only home she remembers is a universe of human colonisation and civil war.

There's fresh grief in Zoe's past – not just for her universe. Uhura recognizes it, though she can't boast a similar loss. It draws shadows under her eyes in the morning light.

-

Zoe's fingers are warm when Uhura passes her a history book. When she pushes it aside and picks up Uhura's hand instead, her lips are warm as they lay kisses along her wrist.

'I'm seeing someone,' Uhura manages.

'I'm grieving for someone,' Zoe replies, but let's go of her hand.

-

'He says it's okay.'

'You asked him?!' Uhura gapes. 'Zoe, he's a Vulcan. He speaks his mind, not his heart. He--'

Zoe picks up both of Uhura's wrists and slams them against the wall of the bedroom. Uhura could kick and be released. She doesn't.

She doesn't.

(Later on, the memory helps her get over the whole thing with Jim. A happy ending, all told – for most of them.)

In a few days, Zoe is gone.

-

Uhura could have helped Zoe gain entry into Starfleet, if she'd wanted it, but the army wasn't in Zoe anymore, soldier though she was. Last Uhura heard, she was working as a security guard for an oily trader called Mudd, of all things. In the coming years Uhura would remember her only as a picture of sadness and strength, bruising desire, and a quiet voice muttering secrets in her ear in Chinese.


End file.
